Commandant Exhorts: Figure Out Facebook

This post was update Sept. 25, 2008, to correct an error in the name of the Coast Guard's national Security Cutter.

The message couldn't be clearer: Coasties need to start social networking, right now! Yesterday on YouTube, in his firm, ramrod straight-arrow style, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen ordered his entire service, and especially its leaders, to get into Web 2.0, double time. See it here first:

"We're going to see very shortly in the Coast guard a revolution on how we deal with information management in the new social media, or as some people would call it the Web 2.0," Allen announced. "We need to understand that this is a permanent feature of our environment and we need to understand how to operate in it."